In the Garden

A quick entry (Twitter-ready?), on gardening. Today I was back home and had an opportunity to check out the plants, almost all of which are still thriving, despite our being four days deep into November. The mild temperatures and lack of frost, and intermittent rain have done wonders for all of the herbs, the perennials (which, though flowerless, are all growing), and the vegetable plants. There are enough Brussel sprouts buds to feed a squadron, so we may end up having those for Thanksgiving, but the tomatoes are still growing and maturing, and this afternoon I harvested the lone (semi-)mature head of red cabbage, which will be returning to Chicago with me. I know it must sound pretty bizarre to say, "I always wanted to grow red cabbage," but...I did! It's hard to explain the elation over the plants not dying (as happened in the past) and instead flourishing, and we have had some luck in previous years with collard greens and a cauliflower, but other than strawberries, herbs, roses and the azaleas--and a few unusual flowers like astilbe that I picked up years ago at the Grant Park Conservancy--most of the vegetables did not grow. So the cabbage, I feel, is a real accomplishment. Soon, it'll become either cooked red cabbage or mixed slaw; I haven't decided. Below are some photos of it.


It's smaller than a supermarket cabbage

From certain angles you could mistake it for a large beet or red onion

Someone isn't sure exactly what it is